Photographer Gareth Kelly has adventure in his sights

Thrill-seeking photographer Gareth Kelly is determined to get the “un-gettable” shot, even if he has to scale icy mountains, abseil down a jagged cliff face, hover on the edge of a waterfall or raft through raging rapids to do it.

No stranger to accident, injury and even near‑death experiences, the rugged adventurer, who stands at a formidable 1.95m (6.4ft) and looks every inch the swashbuckler, admits he’s always had a penchant for getting into scrapes and laughs as he recalls one of his first catastrophes. “I remember when I was 12 I boldly strapped on my roller skates to face my latest challenge, which was to be the first kid in the street to jump on a trampoline in skates. The challenge ended with me in hospital facing six weeks in a leg cast and on crutches,” he says.

Even now, the South-African born photographer, who moved to Australia with his parents at the age of nine, speaks from behind a pair of dark glasses, designed to mask a recently acquired bruised eye, and balances a cast-clad broken wrist on the edge of the table.

“I took a tumble at work,” he laughs. “I was carrying a raft and tripped over.”

When he’s not nursing broken bones Gareth spends the warmer months here in Cairns as a rafting tour guide and the winters traversing the globe in search of fresh rivers to assail.

It’s a profession he says that has not only provided the opportunity to see the world many times over, but a job that actually inspired his career as a photographer.

“I was never somebody to take photos on trips,” he explains. “I’d been travelling for years and just buying disposable cameras when I thought: ‘I go to all these places and I don’t record them’.”

While in the US on one of his many visits and waiting to embark on a working trip to Peru, Gareth stopped into a camera shop in Chicago and left with a new Nikon camera and a “how-to guide”. “I got to Peru and the boss saw the camera and was like: ‘I’ll pay for the film if you take the photos (for the tours)’.”

Gareth became the company’s official photographer on rafting trips, travelling alone ahead of the group to capture their arrival on film. It was a job that suited the surprisingly shy adventurer, who confesses he finds taking on the world’s most dangerous rapids, which have nearly claimed his life on more than one occasion, less terrifying than talking in front of a group.

“I’ve always been ridiculously shy but I knew I had to change if I was going to be a guide,” he admits. “So I made a list of about 40 topics that I could talk about to people and I’d read it every morning.”

It’s not the only phobia Gareth has had to overcome in the pursuit of fun and adventure. A fear of heights is another uncharacteristic trait at odds with his seemingly fearless demeanour.

“I go to places where I know other photographers have been and I’ll get the shots, but then I’ll try and get a shot that nobody else has even thought of and that’s what I did at Wallaman Falls. I was terrified. I was standing on the edge of that waterfall, which is about 300m, just looking down at the water thundering past. It took me about 20 minutes before I could even reach for my tripod.”

Some might call it determination but Gareth jokingly puts many of his antics, which also include crossing wild rivers on foot, venturing into croc-infested waters (with one near-miss already to his credit) and even clambering to the roof of camel stables while photographing the pyramids in Egypt, down to plain “stupidity”.

“In Austria I went to take a photo with one of my mates and we needed to climb to get to this spot where we took the shot and it was pretty stupid really, I wanted the sun to be a little lower so we climbed to this ledge on the peak. Then it got too dark for us to climb down so we actually spent the night up there and it was cold,” he laughs. “There was snow on some of the other peaks and it would have been single digits but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. The next morning I got the shot that I ended up keeping, but on the way down we met up with the rescue party that had been sent up to get us.”

Fortunately, it’s exactly this kind of “insanity” that has captured the attention of some Hollywood bigwigs. After hearing about Gareth’s adventures and his quest for the ultimate photo following a series of exhibitions in the US, executives at Wolpa Organisation, a prestigious production company linked to Warner Bros, invited him back to the US to discuss the possibility of his own television show.

“I went in absolutely shitting myself with no idea what was going to come out of it and met Mark Wolper (son of famous documentary filmmaker David Wolper). It was great, we talked about the show and the idea was to have me visit seven continents on a mission to get seven ultimate photos that no one else could get.”

Gareth says he left the meeting uncertain but was called back soon after with the good news. After deciding Gareth was the real deal and not just a “pretty face”, the executives decided they wanted to take Gareth out on location for some test filming.

Gareth says they did the pilot but negative temperatures and nerves hindered his usual sense of adventure. Fortunately, some blunt words of advice from producer and fellow Aussie Camille Hardman got him going.

“She said: ‘Usually we get presenters to run up and down on the spot for a few minutes to energise them but we’re on the side of a cliff so we can’t do that. But I will say this, if you don’t liven up Gareth, you won’t have a show’.”

Needless to say, it was all the motivation he needed and within the next few minutes he “nailed” it. Though he’s still waiting to hear if the show will definitely go ahead, a recent request to shoot another pilot here in Australia has given Gareth hope.

In the meantime, the determined photographic artist, who progressed several years ago to the more superior, albeit complicated, medium of large format photography against the advice of many of his colleagues, says he’s happy to wait for his big break in television and focus instead on launching his first gallery.

And though he credits other photographers such as Peter Lik, who he considers the most successful landscape photographer in the world for paving the way, he says it’s his mission to go one step further than his predeccessors.

“Some places I go I know photographers have been before so I’m driven to take better shots from better angles in weather conditions that would have most packing their bags,” he says.

“Some places I go I know no other professional photographers have been and it’s these places I cherish. I take my time and I get the shot that captures the essence of the place.

“There are still so many places I want to go, both here in Australia and around the world and when I go to these places I will always be taking the road less travelled.”

For more information on Gareth Kelly or to view his collection of images visit: www.garethkelly.com or visit his stall at the Port Douglas markets on Sundays